The Department of Education is calling on school officials to get out of burdensome provisions and federal programs in their schools, as part of the Trump administration push to send education back to the states.

The Education Department release said this move is so that school leaders can have more discretion over federal programs and use federal funds in the way they see best fits their students. It comes after the “dismal” results of the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress math and reading scores.

“The recent NAEP results are a wake-up call that too many of our students have not been well-served by our public education system,” Hayley Sanon, acting assistant secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, said in a statement. “We encourage states to use the full range of flexibilities available to them to craft solutions that meet the unique needs of their students. The Department stands at the ready to help them accomplish this.”

A “Dear Colleague” letter sent Tuesday outlines the way schools can get past “bureaucratic red tape” and better address students’ needs through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

“The Trump administration’s goal is to improve academic achievement, particularly by strengthening literacy and numeracy instruction, empowering parental decision-making, and returning education to the States. Encouraging innovation among States is a critical step to achieving those goals,” the letter said.

It said it encourages schools and educators to “seek creative and effective waivers for improving student academic achievement and maximizing the impact of Federal funds.”

The department said that when the existing flexibilities aren’t enough, Title XIII of ESEA allows states to submit requests to waive any requirements, barring those restricted.

The Council of Chief State School Officers declined to comment.

President Trump signed an executive order back in March that made moves to dismantle the Department of Education. His administration has been strongly advocating for the power over education to go back to the states and parents.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has said that sending education back to the states is the “best place where it can be.”

“If we don’t address the issues in education now and start getting our scores up, where are we going to find our next generation, the generation after that, where are our engineers, our doctors, our lawyers, our scientists, our AI and technical experts going to come from?” Ms. McMahon said in March.

“With everything else we’re doing within our country — building, manufacturing, bringing all of that back — if we don’t educate in the best way we can, we will be lost, and those generations will be lost,” she said. “It is, I think, the cornerstone of our culture and what we need to focus on.”

• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.